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'' |image= |series= |production=40275-204 |producer(s)= |story=Lawrence V. Conley |script=Jeri Taylor |director=Cliff Bole |imdbref=tt0708774 |guests=Ellen Geer as Kila Marr, Susan Diol as Carmen Davila |previous_production=Ensign Ro |next_production=Disaster |episode=TNG E04 |airdate=14 October 1991 |previous_release=Ensign Ro |next_release=Disaster |story_date(s)=Stardate 45122.3 |previous_story=Ensign Ro |next_story=Disaster }} =Summary= Commander Riker, Data, and Doctor Crusher are visiting the Melona Four colony, when the Crystalline Entity suddenly appears and begins tearing up the planetary surface. Although the rapid evacuation is mostly successful, two of the colonists (including one in whom Riker expressed a possible romantic interest) die in the onslaught. The Enterprise sets out in pursuit of the Entity, with the help of Kila Marr, who is a xenobiologist and expert on the creature. Marr does not trust Data, as she is aware that Data's brother Lore has assisted the Entity in the past. Captain Picard hopes to challenge this perception by having Data work closely with Doctor Marr. Soon Marr reveals the source of her prejudice: her 16-year-old son was killed by the Entity at Omicron Theta, which was also Data's homeworld. She is initially suspicious of the android, but over time comes to understand that Data and Lore are quite different androids. Picard points out to Marr that he does not intend to kill the Entity without first attempting to communicate with it. Marr is skeptical of this approach, but she and Data are able to work out a method for talking to the Entity. During the process of researching, Marr discovers that Data is programmed with the memories and experiences of the Omicron Theta colony, including those of her dead son. Data tells her about how much her son admired her great work as a scientist. At Marr's request, Data reads extracts from Marr's son's journals, in the teenager's voice. Marr tells Data that as long as he functions, her son is alive. The Enterprise locates the Entity and begins sending a series of graviton pulses toward it. The creature responds, and emits a signal pattern which is a clear sign of intelligence. Picard is elated at a potential first contact, but just then Marr alters the pulse to emit gravitons with a rapidly increasing amplitude, and locks the program so it cannot be stopped. The amplitude reaches a level of resonance where the Entity is shattered, which had been Marr's intended effect. Marr addresses Data as though he is her son, telling him that she destroyed the entity for him. Having finally taken her long-awaited revenge, but sacrificing her career in the process, Marr is near collapse. A clearly disgusted Picard asks Data to escort Marr back to her quarters, where he informs her that her son would not have approved of her ruining her career in science by destroying the Entity. =Errors and Explanations= # Marr being able to out smart Data and La Forge. Nick Angeloni (Nangeloni) on Sunday, August 22, 1999 - 10:04 pm:(Nit Central) I think it might have been explained by her saying she was creating a program to prevent the beam power from changing. I don't know what purpose this served but it obviously worked. # Picard not warping away when the pulse threatens the entity. The pulse could be disrupting the warp field – assuming it wasn't being supplied by power from the warp drive. Equipment Oddities # The freighter attacked by the entity looking intact when the Enterprise arrives after the entity has left. Either any damage caused by the entity was hidden, or the crew were snatched by the entity using something similar to a transporter beam. Nit Central # Will on Monday, March 04, 2002 - 10:30 am: Data tells Marr that Soong downloaded people's memories and/or journals from the colony he was found at. Doesn't this seem like an invasion of privacy, or at the very least, frivolous? Shouldn't Data simply have straight-forward information about science, math, etc.? Why clutter up his memory capacity with irrelevant journal entries from some kid (Marr's son)? And if you were part of the colony, would you want to be hooked up to some kind of mind-reading downloading system, and have your most personal thoughts transferred into an android? Sounds a little bit too much like the android Kirk from What Are Little Girls Made Of?. LUIGI NOVI on Monday, March 04, 2002 - 10:47 pm: I agree with the privacy issue, but not about it being frivolous. Data has always been a student of humanity, so this just seems consistent with that. # Keith Alan Morgan (Kmorgan) on Wednesday, April 10, 2002 - 5:31 am: After telling Dr. Marr that her son Rennie liked a girl's physical attributes, Data appears embarrassed, but Data is an android without emotions. Maybe he sensed Dr. Marr's embarrassment? # Why would the sensors in Engineering be better than sensors on the Bridge? Even if they are better, shouldn't they all be connected? Perhaps they are capable of performing the specific kind of scan required by Dr. Marr. # Why is there what appears to be a staircase in the cave on Melona? It was probably adapted to serve as an emergency shelter during the initial construction phase of the colony. # If there were no previous survivors of the Crystalline Entity, then how did Dr. Marr know that people on two other planets tried to hide in caves? When Carmine and the old man were zapped they and everything they were holding or wearing were destroyed. There was no evidence that they had even been there. So why should people in caves be any different? They may have left footprints. # Of course, Dr. Marr is incorrect in saying the creature left no survivors, Dr. Soong was known to have survived. That was shown in the earlier episode Brothers. She may not have been aware of that # In Datalore, Data had no memory of what happened to the colony, but here Data says that Dr. Clendenning was working on new detection techniques when the colony was attacked. Starfleet may have recovered Dr Clendenning's surviving records after the events of Datalore. # No one had heard of this Crystalline Entity prior to Datalore, so presumably, Omicron Theta must be out in the boondocks of space. So why did Dr. Marr send her son to an out of the way colony? For that matter wouldn't it have been easier to just keep her son with her while she tried to finish up her work and join the colony later? Renny's prescence may have been a distraction. # Why would Dr. Marr's career be ruined? True she did wantonly destroy an apparently sentient creature, but it was a dangerous creature. If someone discovered that the AIDS virus was intelligent, would that mean scientists would stop trying to find a cure and just let those infected people die? She acted out of revenge. Ex Artis Scientia # Considering that the entity consumes the whole surface of the planet with ever increasing intensity, in a just a few hours, wouldn't it soak up the whole atmosphere as well? Not necessarily – especially if it produces oxygen as a waste product. =Sources= Category:Episodes Category:The Next Generation